Does anybody know anything about Xinyi Liuhe Quan?

so guys, after about 2 years of searching for a teacher searching in all martial arts forums known to men and even buying a horribly overpriced book, i'm still not much wiser about this style of kung fu.

as i said, i got a book, where the techniques and principles are explained and there are even pictures, but sadly, nothing is said about training methods, basic techniques, etc.

so, can anybody here help a brother out?

tips on style specific conditioning, hints on the form, etc. anything except history, i know xinyi's history almost by heart after reading about it for 2 years.

yeah, i know, learning martial arts this way is ****, but i got mucho experience in other styles AND i can find out if i'm training **** because i will soon enter a free fight and / or kyokushin gym, so no danger of getting bad habits.

(for those who'll ask: "durr, why not just go freefighting and ditch all that chop suey crap?", here's the answer: free fighting will be my test lab for things i like to try out, since street brawls sadly don't happen to me very often. so it will not be my style per se)

I trained in xinyi liuhe quan before I joined the army. It was a lot of drills and conditioning. The main techniques seemed to be shoulder strikes and stomping on people. Overall it was fun but I'm not to sure I really learned anything useful and probably would have been better off taking boxing lessons. The reason your having trouble finding teachers is that it basicly doesn't exist in N. America. My teacher learned the the head guy, Li Cun Si, in Shanghai. Of course he stoped training after he discovered BJJ so I think that said a lot.

But yeah, the style seems to fuckin rare... can you give me some hints on the basic techniques? Did you train the infamous headbutt (eagle seize / head smashes tombstone)?

Yeah the headbutt was very popular. Most of the time was spent doing chicken stepping and impact conditioning, the forms were a secondary thing, and the sparring took third. I'd imagine if you trained at it regularly you'd get pretty tough. If I were you I'd stick with kyokushin, you'll probably get tougher and be a better fighter. The once you can fight well maybe check out xinyi, if you can find a teacher. My teachers both trained in muay thai before they did it and neither of them still train in kung fu. If you have any specific questions I can make some calls and see if I can find answers for you.

By impact conditioning I meant the we would do 2 man exercises where we slammed our arms, legs, chests, and shoulders together. We started out standing facing each other and then moved on to moving around eachother and colliding. Total body impact conditioning. There was also headbutt conditioning but we didn't do that as much. Strangly enough the system didn't have a lot of sparing. Mostly just exercises like I have described. You said that you've searched a lot for an instructor. Did you find and one who teaches Xing Yi Quan? That would be the closest thing to Xin Yi. What about Baguazhang or Bajiquan? Thoughs two are also pretty similar.

I studied xinyi liu he quan under Master Li Zun Si in Shanghai for 4 years and have posted some descriptions of forms and the famous si ba routine on my site www.sinoamericanbooks.com/xinyi.html. Xinyi is considered in China to be one of the most combative of the internal arts, with movements that are simple to perform but difficult to master. It is an in your face (as opposed to an elusive form) that requires considerable bravery to use in practice. Master Li was an eighth level teacher---I believe that there are only 4 or 5 ninth level masters of any Chinese style in China. Check out Jarek's www.chinafrominside.com as well.

P.S. I'm registered but can't get the links to show! How??? My site is SinoAmerican Books and Jarek's is Jarek's Martial Arts.